Miklós Rózsa (1907-1995) was born on April 18, 1907, in Budapest, Hungary. He developed
an appreciation for
music from his mother, a classical pianist, and his father, an industrialist and lover
of folk music. Rózsa
began to study the violin at the age of five. Within two years, he had composed a
"Student March." Living on
the estate of his father, who had extensive landholdings in Nagylocz, Nograd County,
northern Hungary, Rózsa
often heard the folk songs of the indigenous Paloc people, whose melodies would later
influence his compositions.

After Rózsa completed high school in 1925, at age eighteen, he matriculated at the
Leipzig Conservatory,
Germany, where he studied music and chemistry. By the time Rózsa graduated in 1929,
Breitkopf and Härtel had
already published his String Trio, op. 1 (1927), and Quintet for Piano and Strings,
op. 2 (1928). His next compositions were influenced by Hungarian folk tunes, due in
part to a journal he
recovered that contained the notations he had written upon hearing the music in his
youth.

The composer remained in Leipzig until the rise of Nazism prompted him to leave Germany.
In 1931 he
arrived in Paris, France, where he was relatively unknown.
Though Rózsa's years in Paris produced several compositions, including Theme, Variations, and Finale op. 13 (1933), Rózsa struggled to support himself. In 1935 Rózsa moved to London
to score the music for
Thunder in the City (1937), a film for Hungarian writer Akos Tolnay. Rózsa
also had the fortune of working for Alexander Korda of London Films to compose the
music for
Knight Without Armour (1937). Rózsa worked with the Kordas on many later projects,
including The Four Feathers (1939), The Thief of Baghdad
(1940), and Jungle Book (1942).

Rózsa continued to compose orchestral, chamber, and choral works. He received Budapest's
Franz Josef Prize for
Composition in 1937 and 1938. His Three Hungarian Sketches, op. 14 (1938), was
performed in Baden-Baden, Germany at the International Music Festival with great success
in 1939.

Rózsa moved to Los Angeles, California in 1940. In August 1943 he married Margaret
Finlason, a former actress
and secretary to Gracie Fields; the pair had met during Rózsa's film work at Denham
Studios, London. At that time,
Rózsa also began his long collaboration with writer and director Billy Wilder. His
scores for Wilder include
Five Graves to Cairo (1943), Double Indemnity (1944),
The Lost Weekend (1945), and Fedora (1978). Rózsa's
work on Double Indemnity caught the attention of Alfred Hitchcock, who engaged him
for work on Spellbound (1945), which earned Rózsa his first Academy Award.

In 1945 Rózsa joined the faculty of the University of Southern California as Professor
of Film Music, a
position he held for twenty years. In 1946 he became a United States citizen. The
late 1940s saw his film work
for producer Mark Hellinger on three gangster films, The Killers (1946),
Brute Force (1947), and The Naked City (1948). Rózsa's
music from The Killers later inspired Walter Schumann's famous four-note "Dragnet"
theme, which is now credited to both men following litigation.Rózsa won a second Academy
Award for his score of
A Double Life (1948). The next year, he signed a contract with Metro Goldwyn Mayer,
an agreement that resulted in a decade-long golden era whose pinnacle was Ben-Hur
(1959), which earned Rózsa his third and final Oscar.

Rózsa's many orchestral, chamber, and choral compositions include "To Everything There
Is A Season," op. 21
(1946); Sinfonia Concertante, op. 29 (1964), written for Jascha Heifetz and Gregor
Piatigorsky; Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, op. 31 (1967), written for Leonard
Pennario; Tripartita, op. 33 (1972), which Rózsa wrote from his summer home in Santa
Margherita, Italy; and Toccata Capricciosa for Solo Cello, op. 36 (1977).

In addition to his composition work, Rózsa conducted worldwide concert performances
and recordings; maintained
a collection of fine art; penned his autobiography, Double Life: The Autobiography of Miklós
Rózsa (1982); and cared for his children, Juliet and Nicholas.Rózsa composed film music
until 1982, when
he had his first stroke. He continued to work until further strokes impaired his vision
and speech. Rózsa died of
pneumonia on July 27, 1995 at eighty-eight years old.

Fan mail contains letters, cards, and photographs from admirers in chronological order
from 1940-1995. Undated fan mail is in a folder at the end of the series.

Compositions contains Rózsa's Opp. 1-45 (except Op. 11) as well as compositions without
opus numbers. Some compositions are handwritten while others are printed publications.
Additionally, it contains
musical compositions by Rózsa's colleagues and friends, including Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco,
Kurt Hessenburg, and
Günter Raphael.

Film music includes arrangements and bound scores. Arrangements include selections
from Rózsa's film music scores in the form of handwritten scores, sheet music, and
reproductions in a copyist's
hand. Bound scores include Rózsa's compositions for motion pictures that are in hardcover
or spiral-bound format.
Some scores are handwritten by the composer (including The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
and The V.I.P.s) while others are reproductions in a copyist's hand (including
A Double Life, Ben-Hur, and Spellbound).

Printed material includes articles and clippings from 1930-1996, concert programs from
1918-1995, press notices for Rózsa's compositions, and publicity documents.

Recordings includes phonograph records and compact discs of recorded music composed or
conducted primarily by Rózsa.

Writings includes writings by Rózsa and writings by others. Rózsa's writings include
books to which he has contributed an introduction, his autobiography in Hungarian,
lists, drafts, notes, music
fragments, and manuscripts for lectures and articles. Writings by others comprise
manuscripts by Rózsa's colleagues,
friends, and critics. Some writings are about Rózsa while others are unrelated (such
as Stephen Lovas's
My Two Failures).

Compositions by Rózsa, Film music, and Recordings are arranged alphabetically by title
of work. Compositions by
others, Correspondence-subject files, and Writings are arranged alphabetically by
creator or subject. Fan Mail is
arranged in chronological order with undated materials at the end of the series.

Access Restrictions

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require
advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance
concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and
all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from
any
materials in this collection.

Collection - Choral Compositions - Includes "Nativity," "Blessed Mary," "Prayer of
Our Lord," "Sermon on the Mount," "Way of the Cross," "Pietà," and "King of Kings
Theme (Hosanna)" from King of Kings and "Star of Bethlehem," "Mother's Love," "Adoration
of the Magi," and "Christ Theme" from Ben-Hur
- published sheet music

These microfilmed versions of a few of Rozsa's works were created by Valle Music Repro
in the mid-1970s. Titles given below are copied directly from the boxes as much as
possible; some of the handwriting is illegible.

This subseries contains Rózsa's compositions for motion pictures. Some volumes are
bound in hardcover, others are in spiral-bound notebooks. The material is a mix of
handwritten originals and reproductions (noted in the inventory below).